“Notes?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Honey, at our age, we might forget an important little bit of news, so we’ll take notes between now and tomorrow about everything we hear,” Lettie explained.
“You mean gossip?”
“It’s one and the same,” Lettie and Nadine said in unison.
“So now, what’s going on with you and Rick?” Nadine leaned forward like she was sharing a secret.
“As in?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Do you like him? Does he like you? Are you going out on a date?” Lettie asked.
“Slow down. Yes, I like Rick as a friend. I don’t know if he likes me, and we are definitely not dating. I’ve only been home a week. That would be moving too fast,” Jennie Sue answered.
Nadine clapped her hands. “You lost. You owe me two dollars.”
Lettie pulled two rumpled dollar bills from her purse. “I’ll win it back by the end of the day.”
“Maybe so, but it’s mine now.”
“Is that real money?” Jennie Sue asked.
“We got about ten of them dollars, and that’s our rumor money. We been using the same bills for up near fifty years now,” Lettie answered.
Jennie Sue dropped the two books in her hands. “You’re kiddin’ me, right?”
“Truth.” Lettie held up two fingers. “Swear it on my mama’s Bible. We wouldn’t lie to our friend.”
“So I’m your friend even though you’ve been feuding with the Wilshires for all these years?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Honey, you are a Baker and we loved your grandma Vera, so yes, you are our friend.”
“And since you are our friend”—Nadine lowered her voice to a whisper—“when the aliens do figure out a way to get into our business because of that fancy phone you have, we’ll protect you. I got a concrete cellar full of canned vegetables and fruit. Got two old bunk beds down there, too, and a thousand rounds of ammo to go with my guns. I reckon we can hold ’em off for a little while.”
“Thank you. That eases my fears.” Jennie Sue stopped what she was doing and gave them both a hug.
Even though Rick usually avoided mirrors like the plague, especially when he wasn’t wearing a shirt, that morning after his shower he stood in front of one and let the memories of that day rush over him. He and the rest of the Rangers had gotten the mission plan and packed their gear. They were all as superstitious as baseball players and had their own special routines. Rick’s was that he had to put all his gear into his go bag and take it out three times to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Then he had to zip it, unzip it, and then zip it one more time. After that, he’d check his guns and count the ammo twice. Finally, he’d kiss his dog tags, and then he was ready to go.
He’d done it all that morning, but his mind had been on his dad. He and Cricket had talked on FaceTime the night before, and she’d told him that their father was running out of steam early in the afternoon. The man had worked his whole life in the fields—he was as strong as a bull—so it was a big thing when he couldn’t go all day anymore. They found out that he had cancer the same week that Rick lay unconscious in a hospital.
Rick touched the scars on his chest and sides and then turned to see the big one that had made him have to relearn the art of walking. “No woman would ever want something that looks like this,” he muttered.
His team had accomplished the mission and had made it to the helicopter, all of them running full-out with gunfire behind them when he’d heard a click. He hadn’t had time to make a decision about whether to take another step or not. The next thing he knew he was flying through the air.
Two of his friends grabbed him under the arms and pulled him into the chopper, and then it was lights-out. When he woke up, he knew he wasn’t dead because it hurt too much. His best friend had slept in a chair beside him, and when Rick groaned, he awoke with a start and ran for a nurse. The good news was that he was alive. The bad was that he’d spend several months in rehab and he’d never be fit for active duty again.
Cricket’s loud voice startled him from the past into reality when she yelled from the living room. “You better get a move on. You need to be at the library to get the bookmobile in exactly fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, sir, Sarge,” he called out.
“I’m cranky. Don’t get cute with me,” she hollered back.
He hurriedly threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. After he’d put on his athletic shoes, he grabbed the book he’d been reading. He shoved it down into a backpack with half a dozen bottles of water and the last half dozen peanut butter cookies Cricket had made a few days before.
“You good for the afternoon?” he asked.
“Might as well be. I can’t do anything but sit here. I’m just glad it’s summer and Elaine can get high school girls to pick up my shifts. She’s called twice this morning already to check on me and ask if we needed anything.”
“That’s great. Keep the ice regimen going, and remember to take the pain meds like the doctor said. Jennie Sue will be here this evening, so you’ll have some company then.”
He heard her grumbling on his way out.
He drove straight to the library and got the keys, then headed north up to Roby. Fifteen minutes later he arrived at the school parking lot to find several folks already waiting for him. When Rick was sixteen, the big news in the area had been about the forty-two people who each put a ten-dollar bill in a pot to buy lottery tickets. They’d won a forty-six-million-dollar pot and split it, making several citizens of Roby instant millionaires.
“Hey.” Claud Brewer stepped inside the second that Rick opened the door. “I heard that your sister done broke her leg, and you hired an old girlfriend to come help out on the farm. Any truth in that?”
“She sprained her ankle, and Jennie Sue Baker agreed to help out since Cricket is her friend.” He’d have probably fainted like a girl if Cricket had made that drastic of a change in her actual opinion of Jennie Sue. “Been hot enough for you?” He tried to change the subject.
“That’s Dill Baker’s daughter, right? The one that married that fancy feller from New York a few years ago?”
“Yep, but she’s been divorced for a while now.” Rick made another stab at changing the conversation. “I brought the last two John Grisham books with you in mind today.”
Claud put his two return books in the bin right inside the door. “I heard he took off with another woman, and the gover’ment is hot on his tail. And I’ll take both of the books you brought. Too hot to be outside these days, and my wife yammers about it if I try to cook. Says I mess up too many dishes.”
“You like to cook?” Rick found the books for him and had him sign the cards in the back.
“Naw, I just like to piss my wife off.” Claud winked. “Retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I work on keepin’ her blood pressure up. I figure pissin’ her off is savin’ her life. You might remember that when you get old and that young filly you are seein’ down there in Bloom needs a little help with her blood pressure.”
Yeah, like that would ever happen. Rick sighed. She’s way too beautiful to ever look at me in any way but as a friend.
“Evenin’, Cricket. Are you bored to death?” Jennie Sue passed through the living room without stopping.
“You don’t know the half of it. What is that in your hands?” Cricket groaned.
“Italian bread. I’ll make it out into a loaf and let it rise again while I get things prepped for supper.”
“What’s your angle, Jennie Sue? My brother is off-limits, if that’s it.” Cricket’s tone was edgy.